NEW YORK • Netflix subscribers like being able to glide through entire seasons of Stranger Things and The Crown without sitting through commercials.

While it is the dominant streaming platform, with 158 million global subscribers, Netflix also has a US$12-billion (S$16.3-billion) pile of debt.

And it is facing competition from deep-pocketed streaming newcomers such as Walt Disney and Apple.

Research firm eMarketer said this month that Netflix's "days at the top may be numbered" and many analysts wonder if, to keep its revenue strong, it will have to embrace advertisements.

Even as Netflix resists commercials, it is finding ways to work with brands.

Last month, it worked with sandwich chain Subway to start offering a Green Eggs and Ham Sub tied to the new Netflix series Green Eggs And Ham, based on a Dr Seuss book.

The sandwich generated a lot of publicity in the lifestyle press while also putting Netflix's name in front of the millions of people who buy a Subway item each day.

In another cross-promotion, Netflix charged clothing company Diesel a licence fee to make outfits inspired by the drama La Casa De Papel, one of its most popular shows.

Online advertisements from Diesel hammered home the connection by showing the Netflix name, mentioning La Casa De Papel and featuring characters in the distinctive red jumpsuits worn by the show's protagonists.

Netflix also worked with Samsung and Aviation American Gin on a commercial last month featuring actor Ryan Reynolds and his new Netflix film 6 Underground.

For Netflix, such deals are mostly about keeping people aware of the brand. It declined to say whether tie-ups with companies would become a larger revenue stream in the future.

Companies have long been eager to go into business with Netflix, even before it scored 34 Golden Globe nominations this month.

The platform has something brands crave: a young audience. Its average viewer is 31 years old, part of a group highly sought by companies as younger people avoid broadcast and cable television and are known to hate commercials.

With so much content, Netflix has had trouble sustaining attention for some shows, which can come and go in a weekend of binge-watching, never to be mentioned again.

The arrangements with the brands are one way it can keep attention focused on a given show.

This month, Netflix posted a job listing for someone who would develop products, games and events to "drive meaningful show awareness" and make them "part of the zeitgeist for longer periods of time".

This summer, Netflix's biggest series, Stranger Things, a supernatural science-fiction show set in the 1980s, struck deals with 75 companies.

In one, Netflix teamed up with Baskin Robbins on new ice cream flavours such as the chocolate icing-topped Eleven's Heaven, named after the character Eleven, and Upside Down Pralines, a reference to the alternate dimension in the show, the Upside Down.

In another deal, Coca-Cola briefly revived a failed 1985 beverage New Coke, which appeared in Stranger Things episodes, adding to its retro atmosphere.

The platform does not need to make money from major companies to benefit from working with them.

The idea is to fuel subscriptions by drumming up interest in its shows through alliances with "brands where we feel like their audience will love our content as much as our audience does", Netflix said in a statement.

It added that "instances where those placements are paid are rare and not a business focus for us". That is a contrast with many of its rivals, which have actively courted companies with offers to display their products on-screen.

Hulu, for instance, has a team dedicated to working brands into its shows, with the number of paid arrangements increasing 200 per cent from last year to this year, it said.

NYTIMES